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24. června 2006

Standing in a garden with a butterfly in my hand is for me a quicker path to divine wisdom than reading theological tracts…

Josef, tell us something about your family background and how you found your vocation as a priest…. I found my way to the priesthood back under the Communists.  Our organist, who later revealed himself to be a secretly ordained priest - a Redemptorist by the name of Pavel Tomek – approached me.  At that time I was studying machine engineering at university.  I knew however that I did not want to be an engineer, but rather that I wanted to serve God and do His work.  But I didn’t know how to go about it, because I had heard that the seminary in those days was subject to all manner of Communist influences.  I had already had problems at secondary school on account of my opinions, as I had been very unambiguous about my thoughts on the regime, so it was clear to me that I wouldn’t get into the seminary.    After a time, during which Father Pavel and I got to know each other better, he explained to me that it would be possible to study in another way, in secret. So after a while, during which I though things over and accepted that it would be a secret, I joined the Redemptorists’ secret noviciate. During that time I met the current vice-provincial Superior, Father Jan Janok, and his deputy, Father Jozef Bednárik. I met the latter in interesting circumstances, although they are probably quite typical for him.  I had travelled with Father Pavel to a rectory which was in the process of being renovated.  We started looking for Father Bednárik, and actually found him toiling away with the other labourers.  He reached out his grimy, work-roughened hand to me his and said something along the lines of how good it was to have another Redemptorist.   Then came November 1989, by which time I had already completed part of my noviciate in secret. Father Janok asked all candidates and novices studying in secret if they wanted to go study in Poland.  Along with others, I decided to take this opportunity, and left with four colleagues for the noviciate in Poland. There, we prepared ourselves for a religious life, all the while wondering what would become of us, because it was not clear then what would happen with the monasteries.   I would like to go back further to your roots.  What is the source of your vocation?  Were you just somehow touched by grace, without having any inborn predisposition to the priesthood, or have you noticed such a predisposition in yourself?  What role has your family played in your calling?    My vocation had its beginnings in secondary school. I started thinking about a priest’s calling when I was about 17.  But I did not reach my decision to become a priest until university.My family actually contributed in a big way to my decision. In my home, the priesthood was talked about in positive terms, and also the everyday Christian education which I received greatly helped me to understand what a priest’s vocation involves.  I remember how every Wednesday as children we dutifully copied out various passages and drew pictures from our catechisms, and how our parents often read to us about the lives of the saints.  There were communal prayers morning and evening, with the whole family praying together in the evening.  I am convinced that this had a fundamental and organic influence on my calling.  Then in my teenage years I perhaps distanced myself for a short while from God, because it was difficult for me to confront the views on materialism and evolutionism to which I was exposed at school, and in the end I had to grapple all by myself with the assertions that I was a nothing but a physical entity, that and nothing more. Different beliefs were however expressed in my home, and by Father Pavel, the organist whom I have already mentioned. Father Pavel often took us young people on trips, where we would talk about God and also about questions concerning our future vocation, without us even knowing that Pavel was a priest.  With hindsight, I am realising now how important it is for young people aged 14 or 15 to be able to speak openly about their vocation, just like it is important for them to talk about relationships between men and women on a spiritual level, because here young people have to overcome a lot of prejudices.   How is it possible to pass on faith so that it is not seen as just another ideology, which a person can accept or reject according to mood or disposition?  How does faith differ from ideology and how can we pass it on?   I think that to a child absolutely everything is ideology. When we are children, we absorb opinions automatically from our parents and behave accordingly without thinking twice.  The older we get however, the more we want to stand on our own two feet.  Then we naturally start getting into conflicts with our parents or with authority in general.  Speaking personally, I must admit that I too have had my battles with authority, even with the authority of God Himself. A conflict between God’s authority and my childish worldview was necessary, before my faith could be reborn in an adult form.  Each human being on earth takes a different path. One individual may not believe in God before becoming an adult, when he or she already has cut and dried views of the world. For and adult, embracing faith is much easier than for a person raised in a Christian family who must, come what may, purge him or herself of the ideology of a faith based on a child’s way of looking at the world, so as to be able to embrace faith as an adult.  By this I of course do not mean that it is a bad thing for parents to lead their children vigorously along the road to faith, because if parents were to leave everything up to their children, they would be teaching their children nothing: children wouldn’t even learn how to clean their teeth. Similarly, they would not learn other basic life-skills, if their parents were not watching over them.   Similarly, when children are being educated towards faith, it is necessary to teach them the fundamental principles and habits which must be maintained in a person’s relationship with God. The art of parenting, or indeed of any educator, for example a priest, who influences others by means of his faith and position, consists not in turning faith into an ideology promulgated by the Church, but rather in being able to reach out to each person individually and constructively, according to the example of Jesus Christ.  It is very difficult to explain! In adulthood, a person should not look at his or her faith ideologically.  There do not exist any all-encompassing rules for living one’s life, which would allow us glibly to solve all of life’s problems, and it is becoming more difficult to cite faith in God as a general panacea to people’s problems.  Some people need to approach the question of faith freely, others need clearly defined boundaries, and it is important to be able to evaluate what effects these disparate approaches will have on any given individual.  For example, I meet adults who need fundamental guidance from a priest in their spiritual lives, they need to have everything clearly labelled and classified, and they form their own conception of faith accordingly. Others however cannot function like this, and need more freedom in which first of all to find internal peace and then recognise and express their true personalities, before beginning to accept divine truth.   Passing on faith means passing on an image of God.  How do you imagine God, or what is your picture of God?  Who is God for you? I would say that I am still contending with the image of God I had in my childhood. My father was a very strong authority figure in our lives and he really made some things stick … Whenever I thought about this during my noviciate and later in my studies, I realised that I am a rather impressionable person, and that thanks to my upbringing I see God as an extremely powerful, and perhaps even strict being, from whom I am actually inclined to flee. There is something, especially in that unhealthy aspect of my image of God, from which I need to liberate myself by gradually embracing the freedom of a son,  who is sometimes prodigal but always loved by his Father. Especially now as an adult, when I understand God more fully than when I was a child, I realise that God does not possess authority because of the power which he could exercise simply to prescribe, and which could turn human beings into just blindly obedient beings, instruments of His will, but that God is merciful and loving, and that I can love him, which is the best way to avoid sin and selfishness. The spirituality of God’s mercy, symbolised by the image of a merciful Christ, helps me greatly.  It is such a God, a God full of mercy, whom I want to help others discover.  Rationally I of course also know that God is merciful, but I have to remind myself of that again and again. I have a preference for those parts of the Gospel which exalt the soul over those sterner episodes where Christ appears as an authority figure.  I am always searching for that which will show me the true face of Our Lord. Such an endeavour represents a different path for each and every one of us.   Let’s say that our spiritual lives more than ever before represent a spiritual struggle amidst the flood of beliefs, ideologies and options available to us.  Which weapons do you use in the struggle to ensure always that God comes first? What form does the spiritual life of a priest actually take? People often wrongly think that priests are rather strange people. This is possibly because of the way the Church has exalted the priesthood, especially before the Council but also after. That in itself is nothing bad. It can however become a problem if the priesthood is exalted without it being emphasised that the individual discharging this noble and divine calling is also just a human being, with a human being’s nature, or to be more precise, is a person with the nature and ordinariness of a human being who happens to have a priest’s vocation.  I myself continually struggle with this to a certain extent.  An awareness of the sacredness and greatness of divine matters, of religion, was inculcated in me, and that is certainly a good thing. From that knowledge there also flows an appropriate awareness of my own utter unworthiness. On the one hand it is correct and fitting that the priesthood should be exalted, but on the other hand it can be very dangerous.  If the priesthood is only exalted, and other even more important aspects of the priesthood are ignored, including the basic truths of human nature and human sinfulness, we can easily completely misunderstand the priesthood and the spiritual life of a priest.  My own spiritual life consists of a constant struggle with an erroneous image of God. On the one hand, I can feel how my inner self is moving closer to the divinity and worthiness which God grants to the person with a vocation, but at the same time I have a pronounced feeling of unworthiness. What is more, I can hear the exhortation of Jesus Christ very clearly: Be a complete human being!So I cannot just be a priest who exists as if suspended in spirituality, a priest removed from his humanity, but I must discharge my priestly vocation as the human being I am, following the example of Jesus’s life, his grace, forbearance and love. But in order truly to describe my humanity in the context of my vocation as a priest, I would at this point have to confess my sins! So don’t be surprised that priests and religious men go to confession regularly, at least once a fortnight. At least, that is how often I must confess.   From another perspective, the spirituality of every individual, including priests, should aim to spread love and goodness, and to create healthy, positive relationships between people. We should not let our weaknesses frustrate us. It is good when people, in their spiritual lives, gradually discovers God’s gifts to them, and try to cultivate them, and do not envy others their different gifts and talents, but rather with those others create a diverse and varied human collective working towards a common goal. It is also important to try to create positive feelings.  That is an important component not only of a priest’s spirituality, but of each Christian’s.  Lord Jesus created around himself precisely this atmosphere of warm acceptance and radiated a healing power through the way he looked at and thought of others, even if he knew everything about them, including their sins. The spirituality of a priest and a Christian means living and looking at the world like Christ.  When I look at my life as a priest, which has lasted almost 10 years, I must say that the weapons which allow me to live a good life as a priest and a human being are prayer, my preparations for Holy Mass and my sermons, and my efforts to say a good Mass, also guiding people, my attempts to maintain a healthy mind, my ability to stop at a given point, and seeking and finding God’s paths, and the scrutiny of my conscience.  I have understood that I must have time to myself and be able to relax, which however sometimes presents me with a problem. It is still as if I somewhat selfishly need to make a mark on the world.  Today is the feast of St Joseph the Worker.  During the first reading we heard excerpts from the Book of Genesis, how God created the world for man and was pleased with His work. The seventh day was a day of rest, but God was pleased with His work. Perhaps in the end I can say as a priest that standing in the garden with a butterfly in my hand is for me a quicker path to divine wisdom than endlessly postulating, wallowing in my own thoughts and problems, or reading theological tracts. Or in other words a priest’s spirituality must be bound to the world, to creation, to real human beings in the manner of which St Paul spoke: "All is yours, but you are Christ’s." Jesus teaches me to find God in everyday life and everyday things. For 13 years Jesus worked as a carpenter and taught for only three.  During those 13 years he observed life very closely. He knew how to take inspiration for his speeches on the Kingdom of Heaven from his everyday work, his life in the village or from commercial relationships, for as a carpenter he had to sell or barter what he made in order to make a living. That is where the parables set in the world of merchants and farmers come from, from the world of everyday concerns.  We are still talking about the spirituality of a priest, of linking our everyday lives to our eternal lives. Dealing with the world of our everyday concerns, the physical world, our relationships with each other, with normal situations in the way Our Lord did, and finding a deeper connection between all these and our eternal lives, as taught by Jesus, this is where I see the path of my evolution as a priest.  Spiritual healing is a concept of modern spirituality. Which illness, in your opinion, are modern human beings suffering from, and how can they be healed?   I believe that the modern human being’s illness is a sickness of the self.  Practically everywhere we look it is as if you can hear people chanting "Me, me, me, me!" And with my hand on my heart I can honestly say that every one of us has a tendency to be like this. The fact that people are so absorbed in themselves alone is our tragedy.  People are trying to make themselves happy according to their own personal ideas, not according to why and for what we are created as human beings. People only appreciate that which seems to be of personal benefit and worth to them. It is sometimes even laughable how people go to court because something or other was said about them, and this is even covered in the media! Such issues may be solved by conciliation, as long as people are reasonable, or by simply leaving the person who gave offence to his or her Philistinism.  A further modern illness is the decay of relationships.  In this country a half of all marriages fail. Given this, you cannot really be surprised that children are aggressive and unhappy. Each of us has to acknowledge the many marks our families leave on us and the many marks we all leave in the hearts of others. So often these marks are actually wounds, which can affect the lifts of those touched for a long time.  The internal healing brought by Christ touches the subconscious and repressed roots of an unhealthy view of the world. There are things buried in us which do not allow us to breathe freely, and we choose to try to force this freedom by violent means. These are the illnesses which need to be cured. And Jesus Christ is the best doctor.Today there is a popular Charismatic movement, but I have never developed much of a taste for it.  Not because of the movement’s content, which is the Holy Spirit, but rather because of its form, as some people might say.  It is all too much for my taste.  I think that the healing process which occurs at a meeting of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit also occurs on missions, for example, or during various discussions, in the sacrament of atonement, in shared liturgical prayer, in Communion, in the sacrament of anointing the sick, or through listening to sermons. This is the type of mission we as Redemptorists undertake.  The modern era is more dangerous than past eras in that today there exist many more opportunities not to put God first in one’s life, and people are even encouraged not to do so publicly and with impunity. What is more, this is proclaimed to be the only way to be a human being.  Today there are so many opportunities to become dependent on so many things or ways of surviving, that we shouldn’t wonder that in the modern age people feel exhausted and inundated with information which it is impossible to organise meaningfully and in a way which allows them to see what is authentic and what causes the corruption of the spirit.  In the end, people don’t know what they want, or what they should want, or what path they should take and what is at the core of their being.  Often in the course of my pastoral work I experience the phenomenon of healing through the word of God simply and straightforwardly put, via the catechism practically, a simple statement of the truth in one or two sentences, with which the word of God cuts through the labyrinth of the human heart and leads an isolated person into the light. The basic, unambiguously eloquent truths spoken by Christ did not contain the words "I think",  "perhaps",  "could be, but doesn’t have to be" or "maybe yes, maybe no." God does not want to heal us with rhetoric, but rather with robust and spirited words. There are people whom God turned to Himself by allowing them to hear His call while they were languishing in the delirium of their impotence and dependence, making them seek a way of life different from the one to which they had become accustomed. If were to attempt to summarise what I have just said, I would say that people today are suffering from a sickness of the self, they have an unhealthy view of the world, they suffer from a unhealthy need for assertion of the self.  They are sick because they have allowed themselves to be infected by the excessive flow of information available to them, because they are trying to know everything and because they want to experience everything. So there is exists a definite need for healing. Don’t you think that healing should form part of what’s offered by places of pilgrimage, and if so, how can this be done?   We priests are also sometimes sick in our spirits.  For example, I myself seek the help of my friends by speaking with them completely openly about questions of faith, and I view this as one of the very important ways in which God has a hand in the healing process. Here I don’t want it to sound like I believe that human beings and faith are here only because of that healing process, because Our Lord Jesus did not only heal, but most importantly he also saved mankind.  In this age, marked by this sickness of humanity, I would like to see places of pilgrimage offer help with the healing process. Each of my brothers in the priesthood has received different gifts from the Holy Spirit, each of them has received a certain skill or a certain ability to perceive different things, and with our activities we could serve our community in different ways.  Having said this, I can’t imagine some of my brothers praying over heads of those who had come to them, as happens within the Charismatic Movement.  But I can see them healing others by visiting them, by talking with them about their problems informally, sincerely and openly. They could also even talk about a problem which people are afraid to talk about during confession, because perhaps this problem isn’t a sin, but rather a spiritual problem causing great unhappiness.  Places of pilgrimage as such are places where God heals without this being something that is talked about a great deal. But it would be a good idea to have a priest who could help our pilgrims with prayers for their spiritual health.  On the other hand it would be good for people to learn about such an opportunity and to have the opportunity to not only confess, but also in the context of this sacrament to think deeply about their lives in an atmosphere of prayer for spiritual recovery. People sometimes have no idea that this could be possible.   Your work has now taken you to Králíky, a place of pilgrimage in the eastern part of the Czech Republic.  How would you describe your former work here in Svatá Hora and your current work in Králíky? Try to compare life in these two places of pilgrimage… You could say that Svatá Hora has the character of a parish as well as being a place of pilgrimage. A place of pilgrimage because some individuals in the course of their conversations with me wanted to clarify their life’s vocation, or better orientate themselves within it, or simply let Christ heal them through the sacrament of reconciliation.  In the Czech Republic, Svatá Hora stands at the centre of pilgrimage activity; you have many foreigners visiting Svatá Hora, and not just from Europe. During the summer, we are continuously hearing confession or saying Mass in both Czech and German. What’s more, Svatá Hora is also a normal parish, with weddings, the christenings of babies and adults and confirmation classes. When I was there, we were also responsible for burials in Příbram and its surroundings. So I spent most of my time occupied with these parish activities.  Králíky is quieter.  There is much less pilgrim activity here than in Svatá Hora. We are not a parish here, we don’t have to carry out preparations for the sacraments and we don’t devote ourselves to parish or pastoral activities. This is in keeping with what we actually do here.  The Monastery of Králíky is actually a base for popular missions. My fellow priests Father Jiří Šindelář and Father Tomasz Waściński leave every second week on a popular mission and I look after the Church and Monastery with my colleague, Jan Sokulski, diocesan priest, Bohuslav Směšný, and several lay colleagues. Various more worldly matters also take up some of my time in Králíky, for example dealing with the place’s economic affairs, or maintaining contact with various state institutions. Fortunately, a lot of work is done by the technical administrator and the pastoral assistants, which gives me time to prepare for spiritual exercises or study, or allows me to travel in the context of my work for the Redemptorists. Various matters which have to be taken care of in town, with the authorities, or in the context of the bishopric, are also reasonably time-consuming, as is the everyday shopping. Here I have more contact with the everyday world of the normal person.  It seems to me that I was involved a lot more pastoral business in Svatá Hora, whereas it is more relaxed in Králíky. As the Mountain of Our Lady in Králíky is a Marian place of pilgrimage, we would like to renew and deepen people’s reverence for Our Lady by organising activities here on the first Saturday of each month, as well by festivals of worship dedicated to Our Lady in May and October. Now and again our missionaries invite the parishes where they have been preaching to come here on pilgrimage, in order to build on what was achieved during the mission. The Mountain of Our Lady is also surrounded by beautiful countryside. Many tourists also come simply to holiday here, and people also come here to recharge their spiritual batteries and to place a petition before the Virgin Mary.  I would heartily recommend to everyone that they come here not only on pilgrimage, but maybe also on holiday.  This recommendation I would particularly extend to those people who live in big cities and are looking for a quiet, picturesque place to relax and recharge their batteries. Králíky is also a place much visited by diviners, who insist that it is a place they come to charge their batteries because there is very positive energy here.   The complex of buildings on the Mountain of Our Lady looks like a castle. There is a quadrangle of cloisters here, like in Svatá Hora, but with the difference that here the cloisters are closed off on all sides.  In the cloisters there is a depiction of the Stations of the Cross, where our pilgrims go to pray. Within the complex there is also the Chapel of the Holy Steps, namely a recreation of the place where Our Lord was sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate. In the church we have the icon of the Virgin Mary given to the monastery by the Bishop of Hradec Králové, Tobiáš Jan Becker, who established the Mountain of Our Lady as a place of pilgrimage. The Pilgrims’ Church was built at the end of the 17th century. The Church itself and the side-altars consecrated to the various saints of the Congregation of the Redemptorists, and to the patron saints of the Czech Republic, have interiors made of wood. The atmosphere of this place is profoundly spiritual. It is a place saturated with the prayers of many: of pilgrims, and of those religious men who were interned here during the 1950s after the brutal dissolution of the male religious orders, and of the nuns, who until recently looked after the place.… You have many hobbies, one of which is drawing.  How did you discover that you have this talent?   I don’t draw a lot, as is the case with the other talents I have. I am the sort of person who doesn’t like having to organise anything, not even for my own gratification. It helps when someone really encourages me, or perhaps even if I am obliged to by a situation, then I’ll paint something, or at least do what I can to help. So I don’t even have anything resembling a personal collection of drawings or cartoons.  Nonetheless you have recently allowed yourself to be inspired by Petr Piťha’s book on confession. You received very favourable reactions to the cartoons which you drew by way of illustration for the book.  The most acclaimed picture was the one entitled "The Czech concept of hell." Could you comment briefly on that picture?   This is a painting which illustrates the agonies of the average Czech, who has in front of him  "a beer and a whole eternity during which he can’t get his hands on it. " I believe that illustrations or symbolic expression can play a significant role in educating, and allowing the Gospel to influence people today. A situation which is presented with humour, and what is more in a pictorial form, can help people more than a plodding sermon lasting two hours. An innovative expression of human experience, of a real-life situation or even of the truth of the faith, can be a good way to helping a person open up further to the workings of God. As far as accepting the spiritual as such is concerned, there exists a crisis in our society, and a situation which is presented in a humorously exaggerated pictorial form can make it easier to understand certain things, and even in some instances touch the heart. Let us remember that today reality is presented to people in a multimedia form, with all of his or her senses. This approach can also be taken when teaching the word of God and for evangelisation. The language of symbols can also help us create our own concept of a spiritual life, or to find a way to view some facts of our relationship to God.

Father Josef Michalčík, CSsR in conversation with Father Stanislav Přibyl, CSsR

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